Ride the Lightning

Catalyst Offers Law Schools Free E-Discovery Practicum

October 1, 2015

I am probably not the only person who heard this week's news from Catalyst and had to refresh my memory of the word "practicum" – which means a practical section of a course of study. Only 30 of the nation's 205 law schools offer a course in e-discovery – which is hard to understand in today's world. A few years ago, we had the pleasure of being guest lecturers for a two-week e-discovery course our friend John Tredennick (CEO of Catalyst) was teaching at UVA's law school. In those days, two weeks was considered a pioneering effort by law schools to address the gap in e-discovery education.

But now Catalyst has gone a lot further. In its recent press release, Catalyst is helping law schools address this gap in legal education by providing a free, comprehensive "e-discovery in a box" practicum, including training materials and videos, as well as online access to real-world data and technology where students can get hands-on experience in e-discovery fundamentals.

The practicum was originally created for use in the upper-level e-discovery course at the University of Florida's Levin College of Law. It was developed jointly by William Hamilton, national e-discovery partner at Quarles & Brady and executive director of the UF Law E-Discovery Project, and Patricia Daly, director of training at Catalyst.

What makes the practicum unique is that each student is provided free access to an online "sandbox" where they can apply the skills they learn. The online portion of the program uses the Catalyst Insight e-discovery platform loaded with a database of more than 600,000 e-mails related to the Enron scandal. Videos and exercises teach students how to search, navigate and review the data and sort it into folders.

From a business perspective, offering this training to future lawyers is smart. But kudos go to Catalyst for developing an e-discovery course that answers a serious need for law schools and offering it for free. 

If you are associated with a law school and would like to learn more about the practicum, contact Patty Daly at Catalyst, .

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